iPad Predictions: Reflection
I read the Engadet liveblog earlier today and saw the Apple iPad at the announcement earlier today. I have to say, I have some mixed feelings regarding this product.
I’m going to go ahead and compare my earlier predictions to the actual device, and see how I matched up after the break.
Name
iPad? What the hell, Apple? That is a terrible name. I keep thinking of little frogs in a pond. And I’m sure you have heard all the tampon jokes. Whatever. It is a very minor issue that just irks me.
Screen
The screen looks very nice. 1024×768 is a good resolution, although it is not widescreen and is not OLED. The technology that allows for a nice viewing angle is interesting, but not something that sells the device to me. The lack of HDMI out is a disappointment.
Selling Point
Steve definitely tried to sell this as a laptop/netbook killer/companion. I believe that this device is not versatile enough to replace a laptop, but I would much rather use it than a netbook. Netbooks are an abomination anyways. And don’t even try to tell me that netbooks have multitasking. They don’t. I have never had a good experience on one with multiple apps open.
Keyboard
Like I expected, there is the onscreen keyboard for quick typing and you can also use a bluetooth or dockable keyboard to type long documents. I didn’t really think there would be any crazy input options, and I’m pretty happy with this setup.
Internet
I like the Internet options in the device. 802.11n WiFi, of course. And then they have partnered up with AT&T again, for some strange reason. 30$ a month for unlimited data isn’t too bad, especiaaly since you are not bound to a contract. My Kindle-esque free 3G idea didn’t happen, but I guess that was a long shot in the first place.
Content
Apple was promoting their stores pretty heavily at the announcement, as they are adding ebooks to this device. It can also run iPhone apps and the new iPad apps. The iTunes store looked nice, but didn’t really offer anything not already possible on the iPhone. We didn’t see any special content partnerships, but maybe those will come a bit later.
Pricing
Wow! This really blew my mind. I thought we would be paying at least $1000 for this, but it seems Apple is really aiming this product at the netbook crowd. This is definitely a big plus. While the base price of $499 is nice, I imagine power users will go for the higher priced models with 3G and more storage space. That is where Apple wuill be expecting to0 make most of their money. In specialized business setting though, such as a hospital, I believe that $499 model will be nice to buy in bulk.
Overall, the tablet was pretty much the device I thought it would be. I was not expecting a device with crazy voice control or even video conferencing. I’ll probably post a full review later, but I like this device in general. The only real problem is the lack of multitasking, with the jail-breakers should fix soon enough.